here.
Cyril climbed onto a stool and slapped a deck of cards down on the table. He shuffled them around and dealt with a quick efficiency I hadn’t expected from his knobby, broken-looking fingers. He peered up at Easton, a dark secret burning in his eyes. I could feel it. The dishonesty that ran through him pulsed and flashed like a warning.
“Play,” he said, eagerly.
Easton picked up his cards and casually tossed down a few. They went back and forth like this. The imp looking agitated, while Easton tossed cards around the table looking bored. I leaned against the wall next to Tyler, wondering how long this was going to go on. His fear had cooled, but a fog of hopelessness had taken its place. I didn’t know which was worse.
“You know he’s going to lose,” he said. His eyes looked empty as he watched the card game.
I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my chin on them. “He never loses.”
“Everyone loses here.” His head lolled back against the wall, and he stared blankly at the ceiling. I watched Scout’s body twitch and bend as it inched its way back to life. Finally he sat up, blinking as he took in his surroundings. He met my gaze across the room and in an instant he bolted to his feet, breathing hard.
“Not so fast,” a demon growled, poking Scout in the side with his own blade. He held his hands up and backed up a few steps, looking to Easton for answers.
“What’s going on, man?”
Easton lay down another card and sighed. “I’m about to win a card game. Want to keep it down over there?”
Cyril cackled and slammed his cards down on the table. His eyes danced with victory and hunger and greed. “I win! I win! I win!”
Easton leaned forward and I scrambled to my feet to see the cards on the table. No…he couldn’t lose. He said he never lost. A card crumpled in Easton’s fist and his jaw clenched. Dread, heavy and consuming, settled over the room.
“You cheated,” he said, so low I barely heard him over the imp’s cackling.
“Doesssn’t matter,” the imp hissed. “You’re mine. A deal’s a deal.”
He motioned to the demon in the corner, and the hulking giant grabbed Scout by the collar and shoved him toward me. Scout stumbled forward and I caught him, wasting no time in laying a hand on his cheek to take away his weakness and give him strength. He was going to need it. Easton stared at the cards on the table in disbelief. Why wasn’t he doing something? I released Scout and grabbed a fistful of the back of Easton’s T-shirt and pulled, trying to get him to stand. To fight. Why was he just sitting there?
“Easton, get up,” I pleaded. “We need to run.”
He didn’t answer me. Didn’t look. He simply closed his eyes and dropped the crumpled cards in his hand to the table. “Gwen…get out of here.”
“No!” I wailed, tears burning twin paths down my cheeks. The saltiness stung my cracked lips and blurred my vision. “I’m not leaving you! I won’t!”
“You wanted to get Tyler out,” he said. “This is how we do it. This is how I keep you safe. Now leave before they change their mind.”
A low growl rumbled in one of the demons’ chests as he stepped forward, meaty fists ready to punish. He could have me. I didn’t care. But he wasn’t keeping Easton.
“Scout,” Easton said, voice devoid of emotion. “Get her out of here. Take her home.”
Scout’s hands wrapped around my arms and dragged me back. He pulled me toward the hall, fighting me as I kicked and screamed and thrashed with a violence I’d never experienced. I couldn’t breathe through the fear, the guilt, the pain, the loss. I couldn’t leave him. I loved him! You didn’t just abandon the people you loved.
“Gwen!” Scout growled against my ear as he pulled me out into the night. “Get it together. We can’t help him. He agreed to this. If we stay, we’re all done. Do you get that?”
“I can’t leave him,” I sobbed, pain ripping my heart up and out of my throat. “I can’t…”
“You have to,” he whispered.
Chapter 25
Easton
There’s something to be said for an endless supply of pain. It does things to the mind. Twists it, burns away nerve endings, and washes away the memory of anything good. It has a way of making you believe nothing came before this moment. This torture. This nightmare.